A delightfully easy-flowing didactic black-and-white
film
by Roberto
Rossellini ("Paisan"/"Germany Year Zero") that tells
of the spiritual
life
of St. Francis of Assisi (Nazario Gerardi) from the
time he brought
together
his followers to build the Franciscan Order to their
dispersing to go
out
into the world to preach on their own. St. Francis was
born at Assisi
in
Umbria in 1181 or 1182 and died there in 1226. He was
the son of a
wealthy
cloth merchant and noble mother who gave away all his
material
possessions
to follow the word of God. The film acts as a
counterpoint to the
despair
and cynicism of the postwar Europe by its humanistic
story of reaching
spiritual enlightenment. The simplicity, good will and
sometimes
silliness
of the medieval St. Francis's religious message of
peace to all is a
call
back to the faithful to again listen to the naïve
who are sincere
rather than those who are merely clever and not as
pure hearted. It's
Rossellini's
belief that the pure at heart will always overcome the
evil of the
world.

Everything in the episodic film follows the legends
of
their origin
as told by the Franciscans in their documents. St.
Francis called
himself
the jester of God; he wanted to look silly and laugh
at himself in a
self-effacing
way for being a poor man, thinking that was the only
way of finding the
truth. Most of the actors were nonprofessionals, with
St. Francis and
the
brothers played by real Franciscan monks from the
Nocera Inferiore
Monastery
and the one called Peparuolo playing the dotty old man
Giovanni was
actually
a beggar in the town. The part of Nicolaio the Tyrant
was
histrionically
played by renown actor Aldo Fabrizi. The neorealism
film premiered at
the
Venice Film Festival of 1950 just after Rossellini
finished making
Stromboli
with Ingrid Bergman, and the two marrieds caused an
international
controversy
because of their reported scandalous affair. Federico
Fellini was
listed
as co-writer.

The film opens as Brother Francis and his disciples
leave
Umbria
by foot to arrive at the rural village of Rivo Torto
in a driving rain
storm. They are turned away from shelter in a hut by
an angered
peasant.
Brother Francis joyously remarks "Have we not now
reason to rejoice?
Providence
at last has made us useful to others." They soon
arrive at the
abandoned
ruins of the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels and fix
it up and upon
completion
use it as their home. They then interact with the
local villagers,
offering
communion, even to those who are hostile. St. Francis
urges his charges
to act by example and lead by doing honest work and
offering charity.
In
a comical gesture Brother Ginepro gives his tunic away
to a beggar
leaving
him without a proper covering, as St. Francis orders
him to no longer
go
that far and confines him to the grounds as a cook so
opportunists
won't
take advantage of his good nature. What follows are
their many
adventures
that make their naivety seem a welcome sight and a
reason for their
spiritual
flowering. In the end, they all leave to travel on
separate paths as
teachers
of peace of the Franciscan Order. Where they go is
determined by them
spinning
around like a top (imitating a child's game) and
taking the direction
they
stop at when dizzy as that being the one of God's
will.

Rossellini shows a great compassion and humor for
the
friars, as
he clearly shows how their simple life and innocence
is the virtue that
sustains them.